BHUBANESWAR : After lying idle in depots for three years, a fleet of 121 buses procured for city bus service in Bhubaneswar-Puri region under JNNRUM programme have finally been auctioned. The base price of the 121 buses, put to auction recently through Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Ltd (MSTC), ranged from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh for each bus depending on their condition.
The buses were auctioned as the agreement period signed with the Dream Team Sahara (DTS) to operate them under JNNRUM for seven years ended in 2017. The agreement was later extended for another year.
Sources said Rs 17.5 crore had been spent by the then Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services (BPTS), renamed as the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) since January 2018 to purchase 125 buses (100 for Bhubaneswar and 25 for Puri) in 2010.
However, CRUT rolled out its new buses under ‘Mo Bus’ service on November 6, 2018 after which the DTS buses were kept off the road. CRUT general manager Dipti Mahapatro said the buses were auctioned at higher rate than the base slab. The scraping process was carried out as per the recommendations of the expert committee comprising officials of Transport department as the licence period to ply the buses had already ended.
“All official procedures were followed to auction the buses through auction portal of MSTC,” she said without divulging details about the rate at which the buses were sold out. Four out of the 125 buses have been handed over to Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation for the ‘Toilet on Wheels’ programme.